When We Were Young

Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

"What's up with you?" Montparnasse asks as I meet up with him at the vineyard the next morning.

"Nothing," I snap.

"You're kind of in a mood..."

"Oh yeah? What does it do to you?"

He backs up, hands in the air.

"Okay, you're definitely mad. Here, take this."

I look up and see that he is handing me a tree branch. I stare at it, confused.

"Take it," he repeats, shoving it in my chest. "Now, wait two seconds." He runs a couple feet away. "Okay, now hit whatever you want."

"What?"

"Hit the ground, the trees... Anything but me, really. Come on, let that frustration out."

And without a second thought, I slam the branch in the nearby tree. To my surprise, it doesn't break. Only a few chips of wood fall to the ground.

"That's it!" Montparnasse exclaims. "Keep going, Ep!"

I yell in frustration as I proceed to smack everything around me. I'm emptying my lungs, my anger slowly draining as well.

"I hate you!" I scream. "I hate you, papa!"

I hit the branch on the ground again and it finally breaks. I throw it as far as I can before collapsing to the ground, in tears. I don't have anything left in me. A few seconds later, I can feel Montparnasse's arm wrap around me.

"I..." I choke. "I just... I can't anymore..."

"I know," he replies.

I just stay like this in his arms for a while until the tears stop flowing. I'm shuddering, but he's hanging tight, comforting me.

"It'll be all right," he whispers in my ear.

"How do you know?" I hiccup.

"'Cause you have me, Ep. I'd never do anything to you."

"Even when you grow up to be that pain in the ass?" I say with a small smile.

I can feel him chuckle.

"Yeah, even then. I promise."

But a promise is a very strong word. I hope he'll keep it. Right now, I need to believe that he will.

"Let's go do something," Montparnasse suddenly says. "You know, to get your mind off all this crap."

"And I bet you have something in mind?"

I push myself up and turn to look at him. He just smirks.

"I remember a certain girl asking me the other day to show her how to pickpocket. I think today is a pretty good day to start."

Suddenly, I'm not thinking about my father anymore. Montparnasse is really going to do it. He's finally going to show me.

"Are you serious?" I exclaim, beaming.

"Only if you're ready," he replies with a smile.

"Oh, I've been ready for a long time."

We head on towards the market place and crouch down behind a fruit stand.

"Okay, so you want super crowded places," Montparnasse starts to explain. "That way, those idiots are too busy looking around to worry about a four-foot high child from the streets."

"And then what?"

"Then you locate what you want. Usually, I go for pocket watches or bags of coins. They're easier to get since they're usually in accessible places, like jacket pockets. Watch and learn."

Montparnasse disappears behind me. I'm about to call his name when he pops back up behind a wealthy-looking man buying bread. He turns around and grins at me before tapping the man on his left shoulder, causing him to turn around in that direction. With a slip of his hand, Montparnasse grabs the man's coin sack from his right pocket and sprints back towards me. The man just hunches his shoulders and continues his shopping.

"Wow, that was awesome!" I exclaim as Montparnasse arrives next to me.

"Yeah, you don't really need to cause a distraction, but I find it funnier." He tosses me the coins. "And there you go."

I open the bag and see about a dozen shiny gold coins.

"I want one!" I exclaim.

Montparnasse starts to laugh.

"Let's start with something easier. Like an apple or something."

He starts to look around, scanning the crowd.

"Oh," he says, a big smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. "I've got just the right victim."

I follow his gaze and my breath suddenly gets caught up in my throat. Oh, no.